Malden's Kevin Reddall leads the way in Boston Marathon

Wednesday

Apr 20, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 20, 2011 at 8:19 PM

Kevin Reddall kept up the pace during the 115th running of the Boston Marathon.

The Wilson Avenue resident led a small contingent of 17 Malden runners down the 26.2 mile course from Hopkinton to Boston, placing 910th overall and 652nd, in his division with a time of 2:54:46, April 18.

Christopher Hurley / churley@wickedlocal.com

Kevin Reddall kept up the pace during the 115th running of the Boston Marathon.

The Wilson Avenue resident led a small contingent of 17 Malden runners down the 26.2 mile course from Hopkinton to Boston, placing 910th overall and 652nd, in his division with a time of 2:54:46, April 18.

Not bad for someone making his Boston debut.

“It felt great actually,” said Reddall, 33. “It was much better than my first marathon. The weather conditions were great. I ran my pace consistently and was very happy with the result. It was a pretty amazing experience with all the crowds. I actually had my name on my chest, so got a lot of names called out which again was quite inspirational. It was a good experience.”

The 5-foot-10, 155-pound psychotherapist first got into the marathon mindset in three years ago after taking on his first 5K road race in June 2008.

“I’ve been sort of running off-and-on for about five years,” he said.

A native of California, Reddall moved to Malden in 2008. He qualified for Boston two years ago, after a successful trip in the Bay State Marathon in October 2009.

For him, running is the ultimate endurance sport.

“It gives me a great feeling,” Reddall said. “It helps my mental health as well as my physical health and it makes me feel better about myself. The challenge, the competitiveness, I enjoy it all.”

According to Reddall, race conditions in Hopkinton couldn’t have been better.

“The weather was 55-60 degrees with a tailwind,” Reddall said. “I heard a story today that they actually discounted the [winner] who ran 2:03. Apparently they said because of the tailwind they weren’t going to count it. I’ve only heard this through people at work, but it was pretty ideal, because we had a tailwind, it was sunny, it wasn’t too hot, wasn’t too cold.”

“I ran this marathon four minutes faster than my pervious marathon, which I wasn’t expecting to do because of the hills,” he added. “The Bay State is much flatter; it doesn’t have any hills whatsoever. This one obviously has a few pretty significant hills. So I was pretty impressed that I ran it four minutes faster than my last one.

As for the future, Reddall plans to keep on moving.

“I might do the Run To Remember, it’s a half marathon through downtown Boston at the end of May. And then I plan on doing the Boston Marathon again.”

“It was great experience and I hope to do it again next year.”

Malden’s top female runner, Meghan Osterlind, 33, finished fourth overall with a time of 3:48:24.

Lauren Reid, 51, the elder stateswoman of the group, clocked in at 4:16:22, finishing 537th in her division. It was the highest rank of any Malden resident.

See how they run

How Malden runners fared in the 115th running of the Boston Marathon, April 18.